Dawn's Secret
by Orange Bulldog
Summary: Dawn is keeping a secret from her Scooby friends.  But when a new girl comes to Sunnydale High, it's only a matter of time before she gets exposed.  Femslash!  Read and review!
1. A New Girl at School

Disclaimers:

These are obviously not my characters, I'm just borrowing them from Joss Whedon and anyone else who owns them.

If you have issues with people of the same sex loving each other, or live someplace where that's illegal (in which case, consider moving) please move on.

Timeline is what would have been season 7 but I don't like the canon from mid-6 on. Shouldn't matter, but basically let's just say Willow and Tara are still together and there was no dying.

Rating: PG-13

Dawn sat bored in history class. She knew Giles would chide her for not paying attention in history, but he didn't have to listen to Mrs. Smith. At least it was her senior year, and next year she would get to choose her classes. College was so much cooler than high school. She'd been watching Willow and Tara with their cool classes for years. Of course they'd be graduating this year too, which was kind of sad. It would have been nice to have them at school with her. But maybe it would be nice to get out on her own and maybe, just maybe, not be so consumed with fighting the dark forces. She didn't have much of a life that wasn't about the Scoobies.

She was letting her eyes wander the room, and was startled to meet the gaze of a guy on the other side of the room. Great. Just what she needed, for Jack to think she was looking at him. Jack had been asking her out all year and she kept coming up with lame excuses or gentle rejections. The thing was, she'd recently decided she wasn't so interested in guys. She hadn't told many people yet, not even all of her friends. She'd told Janice and Tracy rather accidentally one night in the middle of a truth or dare game. Janice had been a bit weirded out and they hadn't mentioned it since. Tracy on the other hand, had come over the next day to tell her that she thought she was bisexual. They'd become slightly better friends after that, bonding over sharing feelings they didn't know others had. They'd even kissed once, to see what it was like, but it was clear they weren't interested in each other that way.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the opening of the classroom door. Of course, the entire class turned to see what was going on. A tall girl with shoulder-length brown hair entered.

"Um, hi, I'm Shannon, they told me to come here, I'm new…"

"Take a seat, I'll talk to you after class." Mrs. Smith said before launching back into her boring lecture about the War of 1812.

The new girl sat down next to Dawn. She decided to be friendly for once so she scribbled a note saying hi and passed it surreptitiously. Shannon grinned and wrote back that she had just moved from Detroit and the teachers there were exactly the same.

Dawn and Shannon passed the remaining 20 minutes of class writing back and forth. In the last one, Dawn told her new friend where she ate lunch and that she could join her if she wanted.

Of course, knowing nobody in school, Shannon did just that when lunch rolled around. She ended up having two more classes in the afternoon with Dawn, though they did a better job of paying attention in those. Their last class of the day ended finally and Dawn stood up to leave.

"Hey um…if you're not doing anything, you should come to the Bronze tonight."

"The Bronze?"

"Oh it's the coolest place in town. Only club that lets in underage kids too." She grinned.

"Oh, I see." Shannon laughed. Dawn really liked the sound of her laugh. "I'll see. You gonna be there?"

"I will be if you might come." The words slipped out before she had time to think about them. Shannon raised one eyebrow slightly but smiled.

"Well, I can't very well decline an invitation like that, can I? Why don't you pick me up at my house, since I don't know this town yet."

"Oh, sure, where do you live?"

"47 Waterson. You know where that is, it's-"

"About two blocks from my house. Absolutely."

"Great! Pick me up at nine." She flashed a smile and turned away down the hall. Dawn stood in silence for a minute. What exactly had just happened?

"Hey girl, what's up?"

"Tracy! I was just about to come find you."  
"What's up?" she repeated.

"Uh, let's go talk in private somewhere. Your house?"

"Ok." Tracy gave in quickly, deducing that Dawn's something had something to do with her sexuality and she obviously didn't want to talk about it in the middle of the hall.

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"Okay, now what's going on?" The girls were safely ensconced in Tracy's room.

"I think I might have asked a girl out."

Tracy shrieked.

"Calm down! I'm not even sure, I need your opinion!"

"Okay first of all, what do you mean you think you did? And who are we talking about?"

"The new girl, Shannon, did you meet her?"

"Ooh, she's hot! She's in my math class."

"Yeah, she is…" Dawn trailed off, thinking about Shannon.

"Focus!" her friend teased her with a grin. "So did you ask her out or not?"

Dawn replayed the entire conversation they had had.

"Ooh, that's tough. Could be she just thinks you are going out as friends and she wants you to pick her up because she's new. Straight girls don't even think about stuff like that."

"I know."

"But it sure sounded like she could have interpreted it as a date."

"I know. What am I gonna do?"

"Why don't you ask Willow and Tara?" Tracy asked pointedly. She didn't understand why Dawn hadn't come out to her pseudo-mother figures.

"I told you, I feel weird about it, I dunno why, okay?"

"Okay, okay. Well, you could ask her questions. You know, purposely leave out pronouns and stuff. Ask her if she was dating anyone before, or something. If she thinks you might be on a date she won't mention ex-boyfriends."

"What if she is gay but she dated a guy first? Or she's bi?"

"Well still, she probably wouldn't want to tell you and get you confused would she?"

"How do you know these things?"

Tracy grinned and pointed at her PC. "I read a lot."

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That night, Dawn tried on twelve different outfits before finally settling on one. Tara knocked on her door just as she was putting on a bit of makeup.

"Oooh, got a hot date?"

"No!" Dawn said just a little too quickly. "I mean, I'm just going to the Bronze. There's a new girl at school and I thought I'd show her the Bronze."

"Oh, that's nice of you. Be careful okay? You have your cell and stakes in case you run into any vamps or anything right?"

"Yes Mom." Dawn rolled her eyes slightly, picking up a purse and walking out of her room with Tara in tow.

"Come on, you know it's just because we know exactly what's out there. What time are you going to be home? It is a school night you know." Tara said as mom-mode kicked in for real.

"I know, I know, okay? And besides, I know you have class at 9 am too. And that you guys wait up for me."

"Of course we do. Well, have a good time."

Tara split from Dawn and joined Willow in the living room, mildly suspicious as the teen left the house. If Dawn really did have a date why wouldn't she just tell her? She knew Dawn always cared about her appearance, but she seemed especially particular tonight. Definitely seemed date-worthy. However, the witch soon got engrossed in her philosophy text and Dawn and her possible dates were forgotten.


	2. It's a Date

Dawn's thoughts were much more stressed as she walked to the address Shannon had told her. She reached the house and knocked on the door. It was quickly opened by a little girl of about ten.

"Hi, my name is Dawn, is Shannon here?" she asked nicely.

"Hey." Shannon appeared behind the child. Dawn couldn't help checking her out. She was wearing jeans that clung to her hips in just the right places, and a boy-cut tank top that was just tight enough to show off her breasts. Her hair was pulled back into a neat ponytail, showing off her face. It wasn't a fancy outfit, but it was clear she'd put effort into her appearance tonight.

"You look nice." Shannon's words shook her out of her brief distraction.

"Um, thanks. So do you." Dawn blushed slightly. "You uh, ready to go?" she cursed her tongue that couldn't seem to get the right words out.

"Yeah."

"You're leaving?" the little girl whined.

"Yeah. It's almost your bedtime anyway Sarah. I'll see you in the morning, okay?" she bent down and gave her a hug.

"Kay. Love you."

"I love you too. Night." She closed the door behind them.

"How old's your sister?"

"Nine. She doesn't really like the move. I wasn't too excited about leaving my friends either I guess."

"We moved here when I was nine. From LA. I don't remember caring that much as soon as I made new friends."

"Yeah, I'm sure she'll be fine."

Silence fell for a minute. Dawn decided to try Tracy's suggestion.

"So did you, uh, leave anyone in Detroit?"

"Anyone?"

"Yeah you know, were you dating anyone or anything?"

"Oh, no. Not when we left, anyway. I broke up with someone a few months ago."

"Sorry, didn't mean to bring up bad stuff."

"Don't worry about it. It wasn't a big deal."

Dawn's insides churned. She hadn't said a guy, but then maybe she just hadn't said it.

"…either, right?"

Dawn blinked. She'd just completely missed Shannon's question.

"Um, what?"

"You're not dating anyone either, right?" she repeated the question.

"Oh! No. Oh, here we are." They stopped at the end of the short line waiting to give the bouncer their cover. Shannon was first in line and she paid for both of them before Dawn realized what was happening. It boosted her spirits. Watching Shannon slip her wallet into her fairly tight back pocket boosted them in another way.

Once inside the Bronze, Dawn instinctively did a scan to make sure there weren't any vamps. Seeing no obvious ones, she showed Shannon around. They ended up near the bar.

"So, that's about it. Not the greatest, but it's what we've got."

"Hey, it's cool. Thanks for bringing me here. Want me to um, get us some drinks?"

"You paid for cover, I'll get drinks. What do you want?"

They soon settled on a couch near the back with a good view of the band that was just starting to play.

"Hey, I like your earring. Did that hurt?" Dawn noticed Shannon had a third piercing in her right ear, in her cartilage. She also realized with a jolt that it was a little tiny rainbow. She'd been around Willow and Tara long enough to know what that probably meant.

Shannon's face split into a grin. "Thanks…no it didn't, I'd heard it would but I was sitting there bracing myself for the pain and the woman said I was done." She fingered the earring and paused before going on. "I like this one. My ex got it for me, she was always telling me I needed to show more pride. Normally I think all that stuff can get tacky, but this is little, and straight people don't usually notice it."

Dawn's brain was too addled by this confession that she couldn't think of anything good to say. "Oh. No, it's nice. Not tacky at all." She finally came up with.

It must not have been very convincing, because Shannon scooted slightly further away and looked down. "I'm sorry, did I totally misread this? I'm sorry."

"No!" Dawn almost shouted. The patrons around them looked their way briefly. "I mean, no." she said more quietly. "You totally did not. I was just not sure I hadn't, until then, and I didn't know what to say and I freaked and said that instead of something good."

Shannon laughed slightly.

"What?" Dawn asked.

"Oh, nothing, you're just really cute, you know that? I'm really glad I was right." She scooted closer again and Dawn felt blood rushing all over her body.

"I uh…me too. I'm glad you were right too." She grinned. "And I promise, I usually do have complete control over language."

"Like I said, it's cute." She put her arm on the back of the sofa, just barely touching Dawn's shoulder. "So um, is this the sort of town that would be scandalized if I asked you to dance?"

Dawn shook her head. "Nah, people are cool here. Willow and Tara come here all the time."

"Willow and Tara?"

"Oh, my sister's friends. Well mine too. They live with us. They're together."

"Oh wow. Why do they live with you?"

"Um, it's kind of complicated. See, my mom died two years ago."

"Oh god, I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"

"No, it's cool. I'm much better now. I mean, I still miss her of course, but I can talk about it and everything. Anyway, so it was just my mom and Buffy – my sister – and me before that, so she has to take care of me. But she was…sick for a while and Willow and Tara moved in to help and it worked out so well they just never left."

"How old is your sister?"

"Twenty-one. Willow and Tara too. They go to UC Sunnydale. Buffy used to go there too, but she works now."

"That's kind of cool that you live with them."

"Yeah, it's okay."

"I guess it was easy for you to come out, huh."

"Oh…I um, haven't. To them. I came out to two of my friends though." She hurried to say so that she didn't sound quite so lame.

"You haven't? But wouldn't it be easy? I mean, you know they're not gonna freak. My parents…I wasn't so sure."

"Did they?"

"No, I got really lucky. Seriously, you haven't told them?"

"I dunno, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I mean, I haven't had a good reason to either." She said, eyes twinkling, to get this conversation back where she wanted it.

"Really. Well, back to my original question, do you want to dance?"

"Absolutely." She grinned as Shannon pulled her up and didn't let go of her hand as they made their way onto the dance floor.

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Two hours later, two tired high schoolers made it back to Shannon's house. They stopped by the mailbox.

"I had a really good time tonight." Dawn said quietly, her fingers interlaced with Shannon's. She didn't want to let go.

"So did I. We should do something over the weekend, a movie, maybe?"

"Sounds good to me."

"Okay. Then um…I'll see you tomorrow." Shannon leaned in and cautiously pressed her lips against Dawn's. Dawn eagerly kissed back.

They pulled back and reluctantly let go of each other's hands.

"I should…"

"Yeah. Night Shannon."

"Night."

Dawn watched to make sure she got inside before turning and walking quickly home. She touched her lips. That had been way better than kissing that vamp on Halloween last year, and better than kissing Tracy too. She couldn't believe Shannon liked her.

She was still grinning like the Cheshire cat when she reached her house. Willow and Tara were still downstairs, books open.

"Oh, hey Dawn. How was the Bronze?"

"It was great."

"Did you have fun with your new friend?"

"Shannon? Yeah, we had a lot of fun." Her face lit up unknowingly. She almost told them, but for some reason chickened out. "I uh, I'm tired though, I'm gonna go right to bed."

"Okay. Night." Willow said flippantly.

When she was gone, Tara closed her book.

"Something's up with her."

"Huh?"

"With Dawn. She's hiding something. I asked her earlier if she was going on a date, and she said no, just going out with a new girl from school, but it sure seemed like it to me."

"Why would she hide that?"

"I don't know. Unless…"

"Unless what?"

"Unless she really was going out with a new girl from school." Tara said meaningfully.

"You mean…"

"Yeah."

"Nah, Dawn's totally straight. Right?"

"We've always assumed she was, but come on, we of all people should know not to do that."

"But…she'd tell us, wouldn't she?" Willow said, scrunching up her forehead.

"I hope so. It's hard though, you remember."

"Yeah but hello!"

"Still."

"Should we talk to her?"

"No, I don't want to freak her out, plus if we're wrong... but keep it in mind, ok?"

"Okay. You ready for bed?"

"Always." Tara said with a sideways smile.

"Vixen."


	3. The Secret Comes Out

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Tara's close watch on her pseudo-sister didn't yield anything concrete for the next few days, but Dawn did seem to be spending a lot more time on the phone and out than usual. Willow kept trying to sneakily ask the teen leading questions, but Tara was trying to stop her from doing that. She knew that if Dawn was hiding something, anything, she was going to have to take her own time to tell them what it was. That didn't stop her from wondering though.

"Friday night, who's up for the Bronze?" Willow asked brightly, walking back from ringing up a customer and settling next to Tara.

"Ooh, me. I've had a good week, I think I can take a night off patrol for fun friend time."

"Uh, I have….plans." Xander said sheepishly.

"Plans! With people of the non-Scooby variety? I'm shocked and hurt." Buffy said mock painfully.

Xander blushed. "Well, there is a Scooby not at this table.."

"Well yeah but…wait, you have plans with Anya?"

"Don't get too excited, it's just dinner." He cautioned, but the big grin on his face belied his true feelings.

"Still, that's great Xan."

"What about Dawn?"

Buffy shrugged. "I think she's busy. She's been hanging out at her new friend's a lot. What's her name, Shana? Shannon. Yeah, anyway, she said she needs some time with friends her own age."

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Friday afternoon, Willow and Tara had a class and stayed on campus to study afterwards, and Buffy worked until 6. So Dawn just left a note saying she was going out with her friend. Nobody had mentioned to her the Scooby plans for the Bronze, but she had her own plans that involved dinner with Shannon.

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"This is gonna be fun, we haven't been to the Bronze in ages." Willow said happily as they walked in the door holding Tara's hand.

"I wonder if there's a good band tonight." The slayer wondered idly as they made their way to a couch behind the stairs. It was rather early and there was a DJ playing before the band started up, but some people were already dancing.

"Hey look honey, two girls dancing together." Willow pointed them out with a nod of her head. They were clearly a couple, dancing very close together.

"Wow, I've never seen another gay couple here."

"I saw two guys once." Buffy commented. "They got a few worse looks than you two."

They didn't get to comment on that likely fact, because the music changed to a faster song, and the girls turned, bringing the other girl's face into view. The Summers sisters' eyes widened identically as they met.

"I knew it!" Tara said to her girlfriend.

"You knew?" Buffy asked.

"No, I mean, she didn't tell me, but I just had this feeling lately, about her and that new friend of hers…" she backpedaled quickly.

On the dance floor, Dawn was trapped.

"That's your sister? Let's go say hi!" Shannon said, pulling her girlfriend with her.

"But, I, she saw…"

"Dawn, you said you were going to tell her." Shannon said rationally.

"Yeah, but not…here!"

"Hey Dawn." Tara said quietly.

"Um, hi, Tara, Willow, Buffy, this is Shannon…my girlfriend."

Shannon grinned. "Hi, nice to meet you, Dawn's told me so much about you."

"Funny, she forgot to mention some things about you." Buffy found her voice.

"Dawn, why didn't you tell us? Did you think we'd freak or something? Cuz obviously not!" Willow asked, holding up her hand, still linked with Tara's, as proof.

"No, I…I don't know." She hung her head. Shannon took her hand and squeezed it helpfully. "I guess I just didn't know how. You're not going to like, freak, are you?" she asked, slightly scared, looking up at her sister.

Buffy sighed. "Well, it certainly wasn't the best way to tell me, but no, I'm not going to freak. I wish you'd trusted us enough to tell us though."

"It's not like that!"

"Buffy, let's go to the bathroom." Tara suddenly spoke up. "Honey, can you get us all a table?" she let go of Willow's hand to take Buffy's. Willow nodded and headed towards the back, striking up a conversation with Shannon on the way, much to Dawn's relief.

"What was that about?" Buffy asked, once in the bathroom.

"You know exactly what it was about. Dawn was about to freak out, you were about to freak out, and both of you needed a breather."

"I just don't understand why she couldn't tell me. Have I ever done anything to seem like I have a problem with you and Willow? Or that I'd have a problem with her?" she demanded.

"No, you haven't, but that's not the point. This isn't about you, Buffy. It isn't about you, or me, or Willow. It's about Dawn. It's about her figuring out who she is. Sometimes that's confusing enough without talking about it with your parent figures. Clearly Willow and I would not have a problem with it, and she didn't tell us either. It wasn't about how she thought we'd react, it was about her own journey. That didn't happen to include us this time."

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"Tara?" Dawn knocked hesitantly on the door.

"Come on in Dawn, I'm just cleaning up in here. How was school?"

Dawn flopped down on the bed. "Eh, it was okay. I think Shannon's mad at me though."

"Why?"

"Because I didn't want to come out to you guys. She thinks I'm ashamed of her, or something. Which is so not true! I mean, most of my friends know! We hold hands in school and stuff. And you saw us at the Bronze."

"Are you upset about last night?"

"No… not really. I'm not upset you guys know, it's kind of a relief actually, but I wish I'd done it on my own. I mean I didn't before because I didn't really see the point, but I should have, since Shannon. I know I should have."

"Was there a particular reason you didn't? I know it is hard, obviously, and I'm not judging you at all. But is there something specific, something you want to talk about?"

"I um. Well I guess I was a little worried that Buffy would be mad at you guys. And I couldn't live without you and Willow."

"Mad at us?"

Dawn shrugged. "You know, think you turned me gay, or something. Or that I was just wanting to be like you. Which is obviously not true. Well I mean I do want to be like you, but it's not why I'm with Shannon."

"Sweetie, I know it's not." Tara stroked her hair. "I'm sure Buffy does too."

The teen slid to the other side of the bed. "I used to have a crush on you." She blurted out.

Tara's eyes widened briefly. "Dawn, I…"

"No, no, don't. It's not like that. You know, like I used to have a crush on Xander. It wasn't real, it's not like I actually wanted to date him. Because I obviously didn't want to date him, or you. But I was worried you'd figure it out if you knew I was gay, and things would be weird. You know, we couldn't hug anymore, or something. I don't know."

Tara very deliberately slid over to cuddle with the girl she thought of as a younger sister.

"It doesn't matter what your sexuality is. We're friends, family even, and just because we're both gay doesn't mean we can't hug without it being sexual. I expect nothing to change. Well, except now we can talk about girls. So, the big question is: Xena or Gabrielle?"


End file.
